Tim Montgomerie was reduced to tears and reckons it was “Camerons Greatest Speech”. Neil O’Brien thinks it synthesises three years of Cameroon policy thinking into a coherent single message of modernised traditionalism. Guido was looking around the press gallery for their reactions, Maguire had a face that was thunderous, Derek Draper looked miffed.

It was lapped up in the hall, it was solid and substantial. No flashy gimmicks, traditional Conservative themes like sound money, the Union and strong defence. He stuck to his guns on tax breaks for marriage. He explicitly rejected libertarianism saying the Tories were not just ideologically concerned with freedom. He identified a good ideological attack line against Miliband, turning the charge against Thatcher against Labour, that Miliband did not believe in society, only the individual and the state.

He deflected the experience versus novice argument by pointing out that if that was the case, Brown should never leave office.

Sam came on at the end wearing incredibly high red heels that were almost fetish shoes. Bet the tabloids spot that. Theresa Villierswas dressed as Sarah Palin.